Abbie Michaelson has been named the new COO of MeetingPackage, a Finnish SaaS technology company established in 2014. Michaelson, who has a long background in the hotel, hospitality and travel industry, has worked in executive leadership positions in companies such as Lanyon, Cvent and HRS.
MeetingPackage founder and CEO Joonas Ahola commented in a press announcement: “Abbie is a great asset to the company and brings a lot of experience from the industry and management teams to get our company to the next stage. Getting Abbie on board comes at a perfect timing as we are preparing for hyper growth during 2021.”
According to Michaelson, “COVID has accelerated the need to address digital transformation as part of their OPEX reduction scheme, as customers are looking to digitize this area of their business.” Through MeetingPackage’s Booking Engine platform, it allows hotels and venues to sell their meeting rooms as easy as their hotel rooms, thereby releasing experienced employees to focus on other challenges.
“Like most businesses during the pandemic, we were forced to rethink our business model and customer acquisition,” added Ahola. To note, during 2020, the company launched a full self-service model of its product for independent hotels and venues and were able to attract more than 2,700 individual hotels to start using the MeetingPackage platform with the intention to be first to market in providing instant booking.
MeetingPackage's objective, it says, is to improve the meetings and events booking process for both meetings planners and event venues, including hotels, conference centers and serviced offices. The company integrates with venues’ existing PMS, S&C and back-office solutions while delivering products to all customer facing channels. Products include Global Distribution, an online Booking Engine and a Meetings & Events-specific Channel Manager. The software is offered in 12 different languages and is used by thousands of hotel customers globally and over 500 distribution partners.
For more information, visit www.meetingpackage.com.
Related Stories
Salt Lake Convention Hotel on Track for Fall 2022 Opening
Stats: 73% of Event Planners Expect Hybrid Events to Be More Common in the Future
Marriott International Signs Branded Residential Project in Vietnam